We all had a great year – hope you did, too.

My newsletter is going to be on-line this year due to way too much going on and not enough time to get it all done.

Morgan – aka Little Miss Performer – entered a Junior Idol Competition and sang Nelly Fertado, she also sand ‘Oh Canada’ at a school assembly and a duet at the Christmas concert – she really has no fear. She has an amazing voice and makes us cry when we hear her. She danced at the Snow King Castle (a frozen ice house on the middle of the lake http://www.snowkingcastle.ca/) a year-end performance for Bella Dance and a huge NACC performance of Jeanne d’Arc http://www.crazylegscontempory.com/

Morgan has entered the pre-teen realm in full force. The phone is always busy and there is giggling and boy-talk at every turn. She has a nice group of friends, very loud, but nice nonetheless.

Mitchell – short on stature, huge on personality, Mitchell has a distinct laughter that is even recognizable in a darkened theatre. We’ve finally put him in gymnastics after months of a makeshift obstacle course with our elliptical machine, mini-trampoline and couch. He’s also part fish (like his dad – no webbed toes though) and still likes swimming lessons, and this year we are trying soccer. Our nickname for him on the field is ‘pilon’. Enough said.

Mitchell had the best report card of his school career. OK, so he's only in Grade 2, but man, if you could've been in our shoes the last two years, you'd know why we are ecstatic. He's 'focused' and 'diligent' this year. Wow, eh? And good in Math. We know he's leaning more toward me now. ha.

Rob
Rob and Doug are together again! Once again, Rob can introduce Doug as his ‘partner’ and raise people’s eyebrows. Doug joined Nexum not too long ago, and they are busy busy busy.

Little League
Well, Rob's at it again. Baseball - his #1 love, has taken over. Our kitchen looked like a sports warehouse for the summer, Rob was gone coaching or organizing most nights and he couldn't have been happier. He took a team to the Western Prairie Championships in Regina and had the time of his life. They got invited to the Regina Red Sox game, got to warm up with the team and were introduced to the sold out crowd. As coach, he is sure in his element! We're already planning our lives around the next ball season - I sure hope Mitchell wants to play ball when he's old enough for little league!

Tami – I AM CANADIAN. No, really, I am.
Finally Morgan and I are dual citizens and can cross the border freely. I had to take a test – which my friends helped me study for on our girls camping weekend. I fretted and stressed and took on-line questionnaires and finally I walked in to the exam to the welcome of the coordinator “Tami, didn’t you pick up these papers 10 years ago” “Why yes” I replied, “It sometimes take me a while to get around to things.” But I aced the 20 question test –with 150 other people – and took the oath, and it’s all done.

I also made a huge job change this year. I left the government and am marketing coordinator for Canadian North – a Northern airline. I LOVE my job! I work with amazing people on challenging and creative projects. I needed a change to boost my creativity and motivation, and that is exactly what I got.

I'm still involved with Skills Canada - this year I got to travel to Saskatoon and meet up with Heather Peterson for a night. We are hoping to hook up when I get back in May. My new job fully supports the volunteer work I do with Skills and the Arctic Winter Games committee I'm co-chairing as well.

Late with the letter this year!

I'm finishing up this newsletter at my parents place in Castlegar. We've been hanging out with Meagan, Wayne, Connor and Teague - it is so good to see our kids playing together. Teague is so funny, he's almost two and he calls his sister 'honey', so in the morning he pats her back and says 'Good morning honey' and when he's looking for her, you can hear him bellowing 'Honey, honey!' This summer, my parents bought a new motor home. Their plan is to take a trip to Alaska this coming year to see my aunt Mary - they made it to Yellowknife last summer. I don't think they know the definition of 'snow birds' - they seem to be going in the wrong direction.

Last Christmas, we ventured to Rob's parents in Grande Cache - barely making the last ferry. Rob's brother Dale was following us, up until Ft. Providence, five minutes from the ferry. We pull up and are informed that we are the last vehicle on the ferry and the driver is even nervous to make this trip (that doesn't scare me at all!). Meanwhile, Dale stopped for some beef jerky and to stretch his legs, not knowing his sister-in-law was freaking out! Once he got back on the road, they actually stopped him half way and told him he would have to turn around and go back - he begged and got through in the nick of time. Phew! We hot-tubbed and had a great relaxing Christmas. Dennis' mom lives in GC now, so we got to spend Christmas day with her, opening gifts and playing cards. This year, we are meeting them in Edmonton on the way home for a day of catching up before they hop on another cruise.

Dale has started his own company in Yellowknife - Territory Construction. So, look for the mini Mike Holmes to be building something near you! He put in our new front door this year (with Rob's help, Rob tells me). Dale still comes over every Monday, with our friends Joanne and Adam, for our weekly dinner. We take turns cooking - Dale brings chinese or pizza, and Adam made us the best homemade French onion soup last month - he's ruined me for anyone elses!

Circle of Life

Joanne is an auntie as of a couple days ago - little Christopher David made his way into the world only a couple days after Joanne's grandma passed away. We pray that the love of a new baby can fill their sad hearts and help them through a sad time. Joanne got to go home to be with her family at this time!

Kitchen Renos

Rob and I dream of a new kitchen. Well, I dream - he goes along with it. One day, that dream came true, but at first I thought it was a small nightmare. It started out with water in our kitchen and a heaving bathroom floor. Rob ventured down to the crawl space to find a completely FROZEN wall. Water damage - ugh. Doug and Rob found the leak after ripping through walls - it was between the kitchen and the bathroom - a pinhole leak that could have been going for a year. So, the weekend we have my friend Holly's boys over, we have no hot water, no bathroom, half a kitchen and I'm thinking $$$. I tried to be thankful for the heat Doug had restored to our house that weekend, tried to be thankful we had a house and lo and behold Monday when I got home from work, there was a nice insurance adjuster there listing off all the things they are going to do to our kitchen and bathroom. So, we are picking out new flooring, counters and paint for our new January project. I will not complain about paying house insurance again!

Journey to the Past

Last December, I googled a name - a name I had googled many times before - Joe Waterman. Joe is a name I've known since I was young - a name my mom told me about - a name I wondered about for years. This name belonged to my biological father. On this fateful December day, a hit on 'classmates.com' led me to Joe's site and this bio "Joe is married with 3 kids and lives in Eagle, Idaho." Wow - I thought - I have 3 siblings I don't know. I was feeling spontaneous and hit the 'email Joe' button and wrote something like "Merry Christmas - not sure if you will know the name, but I would like you to have a great Christmas". Anyway, when I hit 'next', it said "become a gold member, blah blah blah' so I hit 'cancel' and thought it wasn't meant to be and called it a day. Two days later, at Johnson's for Christmas, I checked my hotmail and received a "your email has been sent to Joe" message Ok - now it was out of my control. I received an email from Joe shortly after telling me about his 3 kids - It started with his first, a girl named Tami - it was me. And two boys - Ty and Scott. Joe's wife Bryn is an amazing woman and we hit it off right away. It took me a couple months to get up the nerve to call - thank God for email, eh! But a few months later, we got to meet. What a reunion! This summer we are heading to the Waterman's family reunion in Bend to meet the rest of the 'clan' My grandma Faith, Aunt Gloria and Uncle Bill, Cousin Kerry and her boys and her brother Keith, his wife Jessica and their three kids and my brothers and my little nephew Kenny. They have shown so much love fore me - it's been amazing. They've always known about me and have pictures of me up in their houses when I was a baby. And in case you are wondering if we look alike - check out the flickr site for the resemblance - slap a beard on me and you could call me Joe

Friends, friends, friends

This summer was full of visiting with friends! Rob's '20 year reunion' weekend was great fun. It's so nice seeing the old gang. Also, Patricia and Anthony met us for a few days in Idaho for some fun at Stoneridge and Silverwood. Patricia and I stood in line f-o-r-e-v-e-r for a roller coaster ride with Morgan and Anthony and once we got to the first peak of the wooden ride, we were both like "What were we thinking?" and proceeded to scream like crazy women. Well, then we were so scared that we started laughing hysterically. And I mean hysterically. When the ride finally stopped, tears were streaming out of our eyes and we were doubled over - not making eye contact with any of the new riders. Morgan and Anthony pretended they weren't with us as we stumbled down the stairs. Oh my goodness! Later, we got to shoot Patrica, Anthony and Morgan in water bumper boats - my gun was stuck right on Patricia's face - which made me double over in laughter once again. Good thing, we were on our way to the water park after that. We look forward to next summer and their 5th visit!

The Night of Diana

'Diana Curtis Design' small company with Big Ideas won small business of the year - but that's not all! She also won the $7000 diamond at the end of the night. It was truly her night to shine!

Pam Jo-veeee Leaves the Knife

Pam Muir (aka Mrs. Bon Jovi - or Joveeee, as her New Zealand accents pronounces it) left for the bright lights, big city, Calgary. We all miss her terribly. She was the glue to our ball team - the hostess with the mostest and continually spoiled us all rotten. I got to meet up with her in October when I was in Calgary for meetings - it was so much fun. She met me at Kim (Lees) Loupelle's house with Tammy (Audet) Gallant and Tana (Robinson) Dermody. What a great weekend!

We are Godparents!

Last New Year's we attended Zachary Chung's baptism and became Godparents! Zach is Melissa and Steve's youngest boy - what a sweety! They also have Jordan (mini-Steve) and Carissa, who is a lovely teenage (I know - two words that don't normally go together), but she is nice, hard-working, drop dead gorgeous (watch out mom and dad) and very thoughtful.

2007

Well, Rob and I have been traveling so much this year and 2007 looks to be much of the same. We hope to see everyone in the coming year on one of our trips for meetings, training, volunteering, baseball or just plain fun! Living in Yellowknife is truly wonderful, and the distance between family and friends is less and less with the traveling we have been able to do.